I enjoyed the poem "Seaside Serenade" by Ogden Nash. The poem is about how the writer doesn't like the seaside. The poem is written in rhyming couplets. The writer starts talking about the smell, like whenever you are on the way to the seaside you will always tend to smell it before you actually see, it because it has that distinctive odd fishy smell. Throughout the poem the writer concentrates on some of the senses. The next sense he goes onto talk about is sight. The poet is trying to say, when you go to the beach, it's like everyone is packed. He means it's like everyone is all squashed up together sunbathing.
"And the sun seems paler and colder
Compared to vermilion face and shoulder."
The writer says this because everyone has been sunbathing and the sun has made their face and shoulders sun burnt. Vermilion is a very funny exaggeration.
POETRY SOCIETY POSTCARD
English: Description: Copper engraving of Doctor S...
Ogden Nash"Athletic young men uncover their torso
In the virile way the maidens adore so"
The writer is saying that all the men with their six packs and huge muscles are going around showing them off so the ladies can see their figure. The rhyme is odd and amusing..
"While paunchy uncles, before they bathe them
In voluminous beach robs modestly swathe them"
In this quote the writer is saying that the fat men go right down to the sea edge and then eventually go and take off their towels and go into the sea. This is probably because they had seen the men with their perfect figures and then compared themselves. When he says that the ladies on the beach look like something out of a medical book, I think this means that they're extremely ugly and a bit disfigured. This was sarcastic but funny.
Now the writer goes onto say
"Last, not least consider the kiddies
Chirping like crickets and katydiddies"
He's saying that the kids are jumping around making the most annoying sounds. "Crawling, splashing, squealing, slithering" gives the effect that there is lots of movement and lots of sounds. The kids are running about in a swarm, so when the adults are sunbathing they are probably getting sand all over them, making it probably very annoying and irritating. Throughout the poem the words
"It's as fishy as millions of fishy fishes,
In spite of which you find it delishes"
The poet has spelt that word "delicious" like "delishes". This is to make the rhyming couplets rhyme. The weird spelling makes it amusing.
Throughout the poem "Seaside Serenade" is has mostly all been bad points about the seaside, but then the last two lines.
"Oh, I must go down to the beach my lass,
And step on a piece of broken glass."
I think the writer has written the last two lines to emphasise danger because he has maybe been at the beach when he has stood bare footed on a piece of broken glass.
I liked the poem by Ogden Nash, because the poet made a successful use of the techniques to make the poem funny and very easy to imagine